Tales From Wild Space
by skywater1
Summary: Three Hundred years after Luke skywalker, Two Jedi discover an Sith artifact, a Holocron, which leads them and there apprentices on a Mission of a life time.
1. Prelude

Tales of Wild Space...

Prelude

Korriban - 3400 BBY

He moved across the dying surface of the sith  
world, Korriban, his jet black robes trailing  
behind him, the harsh sun glistening off his dark  
red armor.

He maneuvered around the fallen pillars with an  
unparalleled grace. His face was hidden from  
the view of other by an armored, reddish black  
mask. Though there was no one on the sandy planet  
to see his face, all the inhabitance had died out  
after the war.

He walked like threw the Valley of the Dark  
Lords, of the five tombs in the valley he chose  
Marka Ragnos's.

He walked through the bowels of the tomb to the  
resting place of the Ancient Lord of the sith.

"Why…why do you disturb my slumber." A whisper  
cut through the air. "You are of Ashla. Am I not  
free of the Jedi even in death?"

"Sith," The cloaked figure Shouted, "I leave this  
in you hands, and you shall watch it and protect  
it until the time has come for the Jedi to  
retrieve it."

"DO YOU THINK ME WEAK?" The voice no longer a  
whisper, but now shook the foundation of the  
tomb. "EVEN IN DEATH I WILL NOT TAKE ORDERS FROM  
A JEDI."

"SITH, YOU RESPECT POWER, AND I HAVE MUCH. DO THIS  
OR I WILL SEND YOU TO CHAOS."

The voice was quiet, and soon returned as a  
breath. "Fine Jedi, I will protect the holocron.  
I have seen your mind; you seek to destroy those  
who destroyed me. Now leave me."

The Jedi reached in to his robe and removed a  
pyramid shaped object, and placed it at the feet  
of the grave. With that he was gone.


	2. Chapter 1

Star wars

Chapter one – Solving the Riddle

Jedi are thriving, The Temple on Coruscant has been rebuilt, and Jedi Enclaves are sprouting up through out the galaxy. The Sith have died out. A High Council again sits. There is peace in the galaxy.

Wanting to learn from past history, Jedi are dispatched to many worlds to uncover ancient secrets. Dantooine, Yavin, Ossus, Utapau, Telos…….and Korriban.

Coruscant – 356 ABY

Mezu Dy walked lazily through the Jedi temple, letting his mind wander in silence. He ran his fingers through his short, blonde hair, a bronze ring flashed in the setting sun, his sharp metal blue eyes scanned the Coruscant skyline horizon. He was idly moving toward the council chamber, for he had been summoned to meet with the council. He knew this could mean one of two things. One, he was in trouble again, or two, they were sending him on some difficult, pointless mission.

He really preferred the first option, not because he was lazy, he just believed in saving his strength for something useful. Even as he considered this, he knew he couldn't be in trouble, he and his good friend Kai'saan hadn't seen each other in weeks and those were the only times he ever got in any kind of trouble.

What he really loved over action or excitement, was knowledge, the Jedi's past. He couldn't get enough of the history of the order, but alas, everything the Jedi had found about their past was nothing more than a few data pads, and maybe a broken holocron. Any big finds they had uncovered he had already poured over to find any scrap of knowledge.

Heading down the hall, he was froze at the sound of a familiar voice. "I was afraid to see you here."

Mezu let a small smile slowly slide across his mouth as he looked over his shoulder to see his long time friend, Kai'saan walking out of the training room Mezu had just passed. A wry grin lit up his striking features, his straight sandy blonde hair fell around his ears.

"The question is what we did this time." Mezu responded.

The two had been best of friends since meeting as children at the temple; both being accepted into the Jedi Shadows, a group dedicated to the prevention of sith rising. The two Jedi had been on countless missions together and always found a way to get in some kind of trouble, with Mezu's laid back attitude and Saan's thrill seeking hunger, they were a dangerous pair.

"I'm guessing it's some kind of mission." Mezu stated.

"I hope we aren't getting assigned to another diplomatic mission." Saan said unhappily.

Mezu smiled as he remembered their last mission, when Kai'Saan was forced to sit at a debate for hours on end, only paying attention when the delegates began shouting or threatening each other.

The twin doors of the huge, oval, council room slid open with a slight hiss as the pair walked shoulder to shoulder into the view of the eleven members of the High council. They sat in a straight line across the room from the doors. In the center of the room sat a table with a small pyramid sitting on it.

The two Jedi strolled into the room, their dark robe, indicating members of the Shadows, trailed behind them.

Mezu sucked in his breath as he recognized what the object sitting on the table was. Unless he was mistaken, it was in fact a Holocron, and not one from his time, one from the old times. Maybe this summoning be so bad after all. Mezu thought. His normally lazy, dark blue eyes suddenly glowed with excitement as he stared hungrily at the ancient artifact.

Tearing his gaze away from the treasure, he stole a glance at his friend, whose bored expression revealed that he had not realized what it was. Saan's light blue eyes lazily slid from one council member to the next, Mezu wondered if he had even recognized the object as important. Their eyes were pulled to the council member in the middle, a large, strong man with broad shoulders, a man in his fifties with gray hair and a clean cut beard; he held a very commanding presence. This was Fleg Sorene, the head of the Jedi order. Mezu didn't like him much, he was too rigid.

"Master Dy… Master Kai'saan… greetings." Sorene's clear deep voice broke the silence. The two Jedi bowed. "As you know, the Jedi have been researching the past history of the Jedi Order, with out much luck. But three standard days ago, a team on Korriban uncovered this holocron in the tomb of the Sith, Marka Ragnos. This was originally thought to be a sith holocron, being found in a sith tomb, But it was quickly discovered that it is in fact the oldest Jedi holocron we have found, to date."

"That is Amazing!" Mezu exclaimed, almost unable to contain his excitement.

Saan's eyes flicked to the artifact, examining it closer. Even he had an idea of how important this find could be.

"Master Dy, Please turn it on." said the Master sitting to the left of Sorene.

Mezu stepped forward and quickly examined the artifact, taking in the details of the designs on the faces of the holocron. Mezu spotted a button on the side of the holocron, as he pushed it, the point of the pyramid sprang open. A holographic figure projected itself from the artifact. The Figure was dressed in Dark robe, clad in red and black armor, his face was hidden from view by a mask he wore. "My name is Revan, I am a Jedi Knight." The figure stated. "I have a warning for those who are able to solve my riddle. There is a Great threat."

"Holocron, what is your warning?" Fleg boomed.

"I have a Warning for those who are able to solve my riddle. There is a Great threat." The message played again.

"Holocron, what is your riddle?" Fleg asked.

Revan's response was the same as before..

"That is all we can get out of this. He repeats that over and over again." Fleg told them. "We need to gain access to the holocron, but we fear it is broken. We need you to study it and find what mysteries it reveals."

"I see." Mezu pondered, lost in thought. "Kai'saan and I will get on it right away."

"One more thing, until we can make sure this threat is irrelevant; no one is to know of this holocron, not even your padawans. No exceptions."

"As is commanded." Kai'saan answered, both Jedi bowed in reverence. Mezu scooped up the holocron and carefully slipped it in to his robe pocket. Once out of the room Saan ask. "Why did the council call me here? The history is your department, I understand why we need to assess this threat, but as for me, it puts me to sleep."

"Two minds working on a riddle is better then one, and besides, if this threat turns out to be sith they probably want more than one shadow working on it."

"I guess it makes sense, but this is still going to be boring."

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Four Days later, Mezu had slept only a few hours, spending long nights awake examining every micro-inch of the artifact, the pair still hadn't cracked the code. Mezu found it difficult several times to control his annoyance at Kai'Saan, he had contributed next to nothing in the investigation of the pyramid, simply watching Mezu trying code words and combinations of code words. He knew it was stupid to expect excitement from Saan on matters like this, but he could not understand how anyone could find this kind of discovery anything less than life-changing.

"I told you this would be boring. The Stupid this must be broken." Saan sat on a chair in the laboratory, spinning one of his twin lightsabers between the fingers of his right hand. Each time the saber spun it clinked on his bronze Shadow ring, adding to Mezu's annoyance

"Do you even know how Holocrons work?" Mezu sighed, dropping his multi-tool.

"That the Jedi historians job, I'm a guardian."

"A holocron is basically an extended part of a personality, it almost as if the person is still here. The Holocron can store an entire lifetime of information. It can also be set up to be encoded so only certain people can access it, like this one."

"But it doesn't give us any information on the code to break, the only person who can crack the code it this Revan."

"I know, I know…," Mezu was getting frustrated, he never had trouble solving riddles before, but this Revan hadn't even given him the riddle, only the fact that he needed to solve it. "Let's go get some sleep, Maybe we can figure it out on a fresh mind."

"Ok, I'll come by tomorrow." Saan left the room, wearily, rubbing his eyes.

Mezu sat staring at the glowing in front of him, it stared back at him. "What do I know about you Revan?" Mezu stood up walking out into the corridor, carrying the holocron in his left hand. "THINK, THINK, Let's assume you know what you're doing, and everything is planed out. You meant for the Jedi to find this. Then why Korriban, why the sith world?" Mezu strolled down the corridor, lost in thought.

"Unless you didn't want the Jedi to find it, at least not then. Maybe you didn't want the Jedi of your time to find it." Mezu stepped into his quarters, "But why? Why didn't you want the Jedi to know about this threat?" He grabbed a cylinder on his table and took a long gulp of Bribb Juice. He rubbed his temples staring down at the figure projecting from the holocron on the table. Then it came to him, "Because you wanted to face it yourself, and you didn't want the Jedi to find you." The figure stared at him. "But if you didn't want the Jedi to find you, and if the Jedi didn't know about this threat, then where is it coming from?" His mind was reeling, His adrenaline had started pumping. "There can only be one answer…The Unknown Region. Is that the Code, Revan? Is that the answer? The unknown Region?"

"Access……Denied." Th all too familiar voice droned again.

Mezu's heart sank. What could it be?

"Wait… Holocrons sometimes respond to a phrase. Revan Access Unknown Region files."

"Access……Denied."

Frustration exploded in Mezu. He threw his unit of Bribb Juice at the wall, angrily banging the table with his fist. He stared at the holocron. Then something caught his eye.

Rushing to his sleeping couch, he pulls a box out from under it. A box filled with datapads, all the knowledge he had, every note he had ever written was in these datapads. Where is it, where is it? There! He pulled out the one he was looking for. All info on Holocrons, He read to himself.

He scanned the data till he came to what he was looking for and read it out loud, "entry 136- all Jedi holocrons I've found are designed as a Square. This data may not be of value, but it's interesting. Entry 137" Rushing back to the holocron, he stared in shock. "All Jedi holocrons are SQUARES, this is a Pyramid." He smiled, "Isn't that right, DARTH Revan? Darth Revan access Unknown region files."

"Access……Granted."


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – Start of the Final Mission

Kai'saan slept peacefully, sprawled out on his sleeping couch, his blanket hung off his leg. His lightsabers had been deposited on the table, and he had fallen into a deep sleep while still in his robes.

Suddenly Mezu burst through the door, forcing the electric door to open even faster than the motors usually propelled it. He almost screamed at the bleary eyed Saan, "I got it, I really got it."

Saan leapt from his bed, only to trip on the blanket, landing ungracefully on his head. Springing to his feet he pulled his sabers toward him, igniting them somewhat awkwardly.

"What is it? What's wrong?" He asked, looking confused.

"I got it, It Works!" Mezu laughed

"What works?" He asked urgently; the effects of sleep wearing off as he regained his normal coordination.

"The Holocron,"

"WHAT," Saan deactivated his lightabers.

Mezu explained rapidly how he had discovered the secret of the holocron just minutes before. 

"So this Revan is a sith?" Questioned Saan.

"…or was a Sith, I'm not entirely sure. Hopefully it will tell us." Mezu pulled the holocron from his robes. Mezu flipped the Holocron on and spoke the password.

"Hate………Love,

Anger……………Joy,

Death……………... Life,

Fear………………...Hope,

I know all of these; I have walked each path, One of Light and one of Dark. I have killed and I have healed. I've had many Allies and even more Enemies. This is my story; this is how it all began." Revan's figure began.

"I was to be the hope if the galaxy. The shining star of a dark galaxy, but then the Mandalorian wars began. 

On the outer rim worlds, one by one, planets fell to Mandalore, at first the Republic did not act. Worlds out side their borders meant little to fat pigs on Corusant, who stuffed there wallets with credits.

But then he did it, Mandalore landed troops on Taris, a world in the Republic. It was then to act. The Republic sent men to fight, but the war was harsh and bitter. Victory was rare, they asked for aid from the Jedi, but the Council waited, watched.

Whether the decision I made was right or not, I do not know. But I went and I took with me Jedi, many Jedi. We fought and fought and finally we destroyed our foe, but at a price. I found artifacts, ancient sith- no, older, a weapon of the Dark side. Slowly my mind was corrupted. I fled to the Unknown region; there I found something, something dark. Remnants of a Dark Empire, it was a millennium older then the ancient sith.

I knew one thing, if attacked now the crumbling Republic would not stand. With my new found power there was one thing to do. Return to the Republic, destroy it, and build an Empire strong enough to with stand this threat.

I waged war with the Republic, but the Republic was strong. I was captured and brought back to the Light. I in turn helped destroy the army I built, and so freed the Republic.

But my mind always returning to the Unknown, I thought if I wanted to free those I cared about I would have to face this threat. Destroy this enemy, before it destroyed them.

I left this holocron for if I do not return. My hope is that the Jedi have found this and will send someone to find this threat and end what I could not. If not for me for those you hold dear."

The Jedi sat in silence for a moment, pondering what they had just heard.  
"The Council must know of this."

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The next day, the Council was called into session to discuss the matter at hand; soon they called Mezu and Saan to stand before them. They entered into the chamber; their black robes hung loosely on their shoulders. They were dressed in tan tunics, with lightsabers hanging off their belts. Both had a pack slung over their shoulder; they were told to come with all there belongings.

"Greetings Master Kai'saan, Master Mezu." Fleg Sorene sat in his usual seat, but the first thing the two noted was only three of the eleven members where present.

Master Sorene dressed in his usual Grand Master robes that he took up since the last Grand Master had died. The robes were silver in color and they fell to the ground completely covering his feet. His brown utility belt held his long dual-sided lightsaber.

The Second Master, which sat on the left of Fleg, was Master Joi Taku. She was a Nelvaanian with dark hair falling to her shoulders. Her brown robe and brown tunic made her bright blue skin seem to glow. She was in charge of the new students that come to the temple and made sure that they all got the proper training. She sat surveying Mezu Dy and Kai'Saan with a stern expression on her face.

The final Master sat at the right hand of the Grand Master, a Kel Dorian Jedi, who Mezu and Saan took their direct orders from. He wore a black robe, indicating his membership to the sub-order, the Shadows. He had a gold ring on his finger, signifying the highest rank in the Shadows This Master was Plat Nuw, The greatest swordsman in the order. He stared at the Jedi before him through his mask, which protected his eyes and allowed him to breath. (Oxygen is toxic to Kel Dorians)

Both Jedi bowed before the council, "We have a high ranked mission for the both of you. You are to never speak of this mission." Fleg began, "We have viewed the holocron. We fear that this threat that Revan speaks of is a Sith empire. We are sending you to the world Lehon," 

"Lehon…" Said Mezu, "I have never heard of it." 

"It's an Ancient world just into Unknown Space. There are signs that life was there, maybe 5,000-6,000 years ago, but that has been long wiped out. No one has bothered starting a colony there because of many wild beasts, but we have acquired a charter from the Emperor to form a Jedi Enclave there. That is your mission, at least that is what you will tell anyone who asks." Sorene explained.

"You will also be Watching, learning, seeing if there is any trace of these Sith." Master Nuw spoke up.

"And when you have an Enclave set up, I will send students to learn from you." Master Taku told them.

"In a sense this will be your last mission. We may call on you to perform tasks that are within your reach, but this is your main duty." Sorene Added.

"What of our Padawans. We accept the life of seclusion, but may we send are padawans back, once they have passed the Trials?" Kai'saan questioned. "They would do more good if they were not sitting around looking toward the Unknown."

"We will discuss this when the time comes, but they are not to know of the Sith Empire. Am I clear?" Sorene concluded.

Both the Jedi bowed, turning to the doors they left.

Once outside Mezu and Saan walked through the halls. "They referred to the threat as Sith numerous times, yet Revan never called it Sith. He said it's of the Dark side." Mezu stated.

"Maybe Revan didn't know it was Sith?" Saan wondered.

"But his was a Sith. Siths would recognize their own kind."

"I don't know, but I know I don't like this. Whatever is out there must be stopped."

"Right, wait, now I remember Lehon, it's not far from Ilum, remember that's where we took that trip once as padawans."

"You're Right. Let's go get Rendo and Tal." 

--------------------------------------------------

Mezu Dy's sleek, black E-wing escort fighter pulled out of hyperspace; near it's destination at Lehon, a lush green planet covered in oceans, jungles and fields. A few seconds later, a reflective chrome covered deepwater class light freighter pulled out of hyperspace a few hundred yards behind Mezu's fighter. The freighter gleamed in the light of the nearby star as its three engines propelled it toward the mysterious planet. Its name was painted across the side of its gleaming silver side. The Bounty Hunter. It was given to Kai'Saan as a gift after a mission to Mon Calamari. It had next to no firepower, but it was heavily defended and could take a hit. Saan had become fond of his ship, taking it on all his missions, customizing it whenever possible.

Saan sat in the pilot seat, lazily cycling through maps and mission data on the holo-display hyperspace routes. His padawan, Tal'Magistra, sat in the co-pilot seat checking if everything was ready to land for the sixth time, being the perfectionist that he was.

Tal's face was a long, with a light complexion, and attractive features. He had light brown hair, and bright green eyes. His very tall, thin frame was covered by a simple padawan's tunic, and his is newly acquired lightsaber hanging from his belt. He was a perfectionist about everything, which sometimes led to anger at others when something wasn't absolutely perfect. But his perfectionism gave him extremely accurate skills with the force, being careful to notice every detail about any situation

Rendo sat in the chair behind Tal, being extremely annoying to him. Rendo was the padawan of Mezu; he was energetic, hard-working, stubborn, and naïve. He loved to have fun, but sometimes he could push Tal too far, but at heart the two were brothers. Rendo was slightly shorter than Tal, but he was physically stronger than almost any other human, do to the fact he was a Mandalorian. When he won a lightsaber duel it was because of his powerful blows wearing down his opponent's defenses. His dark hair was matted down, like he had rolled out of bed. His black eyes filled with excitement. He was dressed similar to Tal; but with a more ruffled look about him.

"Hunter, wait where you are," Mezu's voice crackled over the com unit. "R-Sev and I will head around the Planet and scan for a spot to land. I will signal you when we find a place."

"Roger, we will wait for contact." Saan said, sounding bored, without even looking up from what he was doing.

"Master, what is the goal of this mission? The briefing was pretty uninformative." Rendo broke the silence.

"Idiot, it's not that hard." Tal said, but in reality he wasn't quiet sure either.

"Its simple," Saan stated, "We come to this planet, built a Jedi enclave, the council sends students when we are done, and then we train them. Send them away, repeat the process."

"So we're just here to build a building?" Rendo asked, crestfallen. Even Tal had to admit, coming to a deserted planet to build a Jedi enclave sounded boring.

"We are here," Came Saan's reply, "to expand Jedi presence in the universe. It's a very important mission." But the padawans could tell as Saan said this, he was not looking forward to a long mission with little excitement. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Mezu roared above the planet's surface, looking for a good place to set down. He scanned the surface for some kind of clearing. Suddenly he tilted his fighter and doubled back, he slowed his Fighter down, inspecting a large crater in the lush jungle beneath him. It was not made recently, because it had foliage growing from the scar in the terrain, but even the large trees could not mask the deep cut in the ground.

"R-Sev, turn your scanners up to maximum, focus on that crater down there."

The little astromech droid, R7-B2, beeped in acknowledgment. Almost instantly Mezu's holo-display lit up with graphs and displays of the crater. Mezu marveled at the speed with which the R7 unit had come up with the information. It didn't really surprise him though. The R7 Unit was specially designed for the E-wing, and was much more advanced then models such are the R2 or R5 units.

Putting aside his musings about the droid, he began studying the scans of the hole in the ground. They revealed a field of debris much larger than the hole Mezu was looking at.

"This crater was caused by a ship of some kind." Mezu said to R7, "A huge ship. Judging from the debris field around the ship, it was originally a capitol ship, or maybe an old star destroyer. It looks like there is still a section that's still intact. R-Sev, search the surrounding area. Look for a good place to land.

--------------------------------

The E-wing was landed in a small clearing a few miles from the crash site. The Bounty Hunter put down awkwardly next to it, barely squeezing into the clearing.

Mezu leaned up against the warm hull of his fighter. He breathed the clean smelling air of this new planet. The air filters did what they could on Corescant but the air was no match for an uninhabited planet without civilization to impose on the tranquility. He frowned, something was bothering him, despite all the peaceful surroundings, there was still a small whisper of unease at the back of his mind. His meditations were broken by the hiss of the Bounty Hunter's ramp lowering onto the forest floor. Kai'Saan descended the ramp flanked by Tal and Rendo.

Saan hooked his lightsabers to his belt, "Tal, Rendo, get the speederbikes ready."

The padawans murmured acknowledgement and began unpacking the cargo bay searching for the speeders.

Saan walked over to Mezu, he whispered quietly to his friend, "Something is wrong here. It isn't any danger… it's more like a memory of some evil."

"I'm hoping this wreck will give us some clues as to what happened here." Mezu looked stern.

------------------------------------------------

The wind whistled past Tal'Magistra's ears as he and the other Jedi sped through the forest. His speeder had been loaded with the astromech droid. His keen eyes scanned the forest floor. Debris was all over, hidden under years of forest grime and moss. He moved to the head of the group, looking ahead for a sign of the crash site. An explosion of warning went off in his head; he braced and hit the brakes on his speeder, throwing up his hands for his fellow Jedi to follow his example. Stepping off his hovering speeder, he took a few steps ahead. A sheer faced cliff fell only a few yards in front of his speeder.

Mezu pulled up on his speeder a moment later, "I guess we need to find another way down." He peered into the ravine. "It looks like that there is the exposed part of the intact section, we need to find a more shallow entry into the crater."

The bowl of the of the crater was smoother than the rest of the forest, but Mezu figured trees had been growing for at least a century or more, depending on the speed of the tree growth on Lehon. Making their way into the crater, they saw more debris the closer to the ship they got.

The speeders made four electric whines as their riders powered them down, coming to rest near the center of the giant scar on the ground's surface. As the Jedi searched through the debris, Tal'Magistra spotted a doorway in the wreckage. Mezu inspected the doorway, cleaning it off slightly. Revealing a gray and red durasteel blast door, half buried in dirt.

Mezu plunged his green lightsaber into the thick door. Rendo, getting restless from watching the slowly melting door, picked up a long metal pole; he stabbed the ground near his feet. The dull thud of the dirt was not heard by the others, who were concentrating on the door. He tried again a few feet away. Thud, thud, thud, clang! The hollow metallic ringing drew the attention of the others.

Rendo began clearing away grime from the metal plate to reveal a slightly corroded exterior of a starship hull. Inscribed on the red durasteel in large black letters was the name of the ship: Cobalt Razor.

Saan walked over and inspected Rendo's findings. "R-Seven, holonet-seach: Cobalt Razor."

The droid whistled its acknowledgement, and projected a diagram of a large starship with the title Hammerhead-class capital ship. Saan studied the chart for a moment, "There isn't much information on the history of the ship, but at least we have some specs on it."

Rendo suddenly ignited one side of his dual sided yellow lightsaber and thrust it into the capital R. Cutting a slightly jagged hole into the hull, he climbed down into the vessel.

Saan turned to Mezu and Tal. "We are going to explore this section; you two check that one as soon as you can get the door open." He waved his comlink toward them, "I'll keep in touch."

Saan turned and stepped into the hole, landing with a soft thud on the wall of the corridor below. The hall was turned on its side, tilted at an odd angle so that a gentle stream of water trickled down the passage, out of sight into the blackness. He pulled one of his lightsabers from his right hip; the hiss of the blade echoed in the darkness in either direction. He turned slowly, taking in the new environment with the soft blue light from his sword. Stooping low to inspect the wall he was standing on, he noted a squishy blue fungus was growing under the slowly trickling water. Peering uphill toward the source of the water, he saw Rendo's yellow lightsaber illuminating a section of the hallway a hundred yards away.

Kai'Saan and Rendo began looking through the wreck for any landmark on where they were. Saan looked up and saw a door above his head, slightly ajar. He stretched his hands up, closing his eyes in concentration, focusing on opening the door. He opened his eyes slowly, peering at Rendo through the darkness. The padawan followed Saan's example and stretched his left hand out assisting in pulling the door open.

The door burst open suddenly, centuries of grime fell to the floor with several soft thuds. Saan and Rendo leapt into the door above, Saan reigniting his lightsaber as he landed inside the room. It was a large multilevel room with many seats and computers, some fallen off their places and littering the wall the Jedi were standing on.

"The bridge…" Rendo said softly.

"Look for anything that might give us some information about this planet." Saan instructed.

Rendo and Saan worked systematically through the room. Piling the debris into a single pile and sorting out anything that might be possibly useful. Rendo heaved as he lifted an enormous monitor up, throwing it aside into the pile of trash.

Underneath was a skeleton, mostly smashed by the monitor, clutching a datapad in its gray, dead fingers. It wore a rotted jumpsuit, but on its breast Rendo made out some kind of large rank insignia bar on top of the fabric, this had obviously been a high ranking official. Rendo gently slipped the datapad away from its guardian, dusting it off carefully.

"Master Saan, I think I found the captain. He was holding this." Rendo held up the datapad for him to see.

Saan pulled out his comlink. "Mezu, come in. We found the bridge. We've found a datapad that could be the ship's log."

The Jedi waited a moment then heard the crackle of Tal'Magistra's loud anxious voice, "Where did it go? There! No over there, there are two of them." The whirring buzz of lightsabers came over the speaker.

Rendo's stomach twisted. Why had Tal had to pick up the comlink? Why was did Tal sound so panicked? Could there be a creature, or creatures that were a match for Mezu Dy and Tal Magistra?

He looked up at Saan's face in the darkness. Even in the pale glow of the lightsabers, he could tell it looked worried. The Jedi burst down into the corridor out of the bridge, running toward the hole they had entered from.

Reaching the shaft of light pouring into the hallway, Rendo started to climb up, but stopped peering downhill in the corridor. He was sure he had seen it. A flash of green erupted far away down the dark passage, a lightsaber hacking wildly at an unseen enemy. Even as he watched for a moment, the saber died away. Rendo and Saan pushed themselves down toward where Mezu's saber had been, slipping slightly on the moss.

Breathing hard, the Jedi came to the end of the corridor. The slowly trickling water had filled the adjoining halls with water, making an eerie blue pool. Tal rose from the water there, picking himself up before walking deeper; he was limping slightly, holding his lightsaber in his hand.

"Where is Master Dy?!" Demanded Rendo.

Tal simply beckoned urgently that they follow him into the churning water. Rendo and Saan ran into the water, ready to dive. Suddenly Mezu appeared, from the depths, a slimy green-brown tentacle wrapped around his boot. As soon as he broke the surface, his lightsaber ignited again, slashing at the tentacle, but with little effect. The lightsaber slashed the tentacle, but was replaced by another.

Rendo dove at the mass of slimy extremities, viciously attacking the limbs with not only his lightsaber but his fists and feet as well. At last the monster let go, the painful burns on its flexible arms too much to bear. The Jedi all stood up, taking defensive positions, ready for another attack; they slowly backed out of the water, cautiously watching for any activity in the black murky water.

All at once, but six tentacles burst from the water, flailing around, searching for another victim. The four warriors parried the attacks together, moving further out of reach. As Rendo slashed at the tentacle reaching toward Saan, his leg became ensnared in another. He reached out and fumbled on the wall for a handhold so he could avoid being dragged to his death. His feet slipped on the blue moss, and he grabbed frantically at what used to be a lighting fixture, the monster pulling his legs toward the hole. Rendo's lightsaber fell to the floor with a metallic "clink" as he grabbed the lamp with his other hand.

Tal reached out, pulling the long-handled saber toward him, and with one swift motion, thrust both sabers into the limb pulling Rendo down. All six snakelike appendages writhed violently in pain, retracting into the water.

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Sitting down on a clump of wavy green grass outside, Saan gave a sigh of relief. "What was that?"

Mezu ran his fingers through his soaking hair. "We got into that door and made our way in." He glanced over at the still slightly seaming hole in the blast door. "It seems to be connected to some kind of cave. The aboveground part of the cave was pretty small, but we found an underwater connection with the dining hall of the ship. There were those tentacle things all over, but they didn't move until I touched one, then it started writhing around, and it kept trying to grab us. Our lightsabers kept shorting out in the water, so we had to fight our way through in pockets of air."

The days on Lehon were a little shorter than the standard twenty-four hour day, and the sun was already setting with spectacular oranges, pinks, and purples painting the sky. One of Lehon's two moons lit up the opposite side of the sky with a soft blue light. Rather than make a risky return to the ships in the dark, they decided to spend the night in the crater. 

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Mezu lay on the ground, staring up through the forest canopy above him, and watching the stars, once in a while seeing a meteor streak through the top of the atmosphere. He, Saan, and Rendo were taking the first sleep shift, while Tal stood guard, tending a small fire. His brow furrowed as he thought about the events of the day. He had hoped to use the crater as a location for the enclave. Now it was difficult to imagine taking possession of the structure from the monster inside, but walking into the Cobalt Razor without completely inspecting the scans for life forms had almost cost him his life, and the life of a padawan under his command.

He pulled out his holo-emitter, quickly pulling up the diagrams his E-wing had taken of the capital ship and underwater cave. He tapped a tab on the emitter's base, switching to an energy scan. The hologram lit up with a green-blue glow of each life form in the forest emitting a small blip on the map. He scrolled his thumb across the surface of the pad, changing the perspective, moving underground, following the path he and Tal had taken. He squinted at the screen, looking at the glowing bodies that indicated live organisms. He stared for a moment, there were a half dozen of them; they were between 10 and 20 feet long, shaped like root systems of trees, but they were definitely a higher life form than plants. Suddenly comprehension dawned on him, he had seen these creatures before, studying in the libraries of the Jedi archives.

The sudden hiss of a lightsaber distracted Mezu from his inspection of the hologram. He sprang to his feet, watching as Saan ignited his second lightsaber, stabbing it next to his first lightsaber already imbedded in a wriggling mass lying on the ground. Mezu stepped closer, igniting his lightsaber as he did. He stared at the ground; a giant worm, 7 feet long, lay on the earth, still grasping Saan's ankle with a stubby tentacle. Saan shook the limp appendage off with a disgusted kick.

"A sarlacc." Mezu said. "It's just an adolescent. There are a few more down there. They were the things after us earlier." He held up the holo emitter, displaying the outlines of the sarlacc infested wreck. 

"R-sev, please run a scan of the immediate area, and alert me if any significant life forms approach... including underground." Mezu sighed.

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Rendo and Saan lay back down, this time clutching a lightsaber while they slept. Mezu lay back down on his sleeping pad; he closed his eyes, but sleep didn't come. He was unhappy with the way this enclave was getting its start. The small click of a multi-tool opening took his mind off the failures of the day. He rolled over, Tal was sitting on his swoop bike, gently examining the datapad, trying to install a new power cell.

A feeling of pride swept over Mezu. He looked over at his own padawan; Rendo was stretched out contentedly on his sleeping pad. He imagined how this long assignment must feel to them. They were giving up their time and effort for a mission they knew nothing about, and more than that they were handling it as well as- if not better than- their masters. He dozed slowly off to sleep with the proud thoughts floating through his mind.

Mezu was awakened by a twig crunching nearby, he opened his eyes quickly, preparing for another attack, but he shut them instantly with a cry of pain. Bright light was everywhere, daylight had returned to the crater. Slowly opening his eyes he saw Rendo's foot a few inches in front of his face. Sitting up, he looked around bleary eyed, but quickly becoming more alert.

"Time to go," Saan sighed.

Mezu noticed Saan looked tired too. He looked over at Tal, who was holding his holo-emitter. "Tal, did you stay up all night?"

"No, I woke Rendo as soon as I finished with the datapad."

Mezu stood up quickly, running over to Tal, "You fixed the datapad? What did you find out? Why didn't you wake me?"

"Because the datapad was broken, it didn't have any useable files about the reason it's here." Tal held up the holo-emitter, showing a blue sphere. "Only this. It's a holo-file map of the planet."

Mezu looked at the planet curiously. Maybe the exploration of the wreck wasn't a total loss.

Rendo spoke up, "I examined it closely during my shift. There are crash sites of different sizes all over the planet. A few buildings also, but most of them are overgrown or destroyed. There is one in relatively good condition not far from here.

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Wind whistled in Mezu's ears as his swoop bike sliced through the forest. He was pushing the vehicle to go faster, leaving the others slightly behind him. He was eager to get back to the ships and to arrive at the building the padawans discovered. He had spent his whole life studying the past, trying to find answers. Maybe he would finally be getting a few…


End file.
